Today, Pastor John Hagee shared the following reasons you don’t hear from God.
You Don’t Hear from God Because You Consult Other People Rather Than Your Conscience
What is conscience? Conscience is a God-given instrument so that we can determine right from wrong in a spiritual matter. Conscience is the lamp of God saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” Conscience doesn’t say, “Well, I need 4,000 people [to tell me] this is the way.” You only need the word of God to lead you, to say, “This is the way.” Conscience is the compass of the soul. Conscience is God’s umpire that’s in your heart. And when you violate the law of God, your conscience hounds you. It will turn your Posturepedic bed into a bed of hot coals. … A quiet conscience can sleep in thunder. …
What made Adam and Eve hide from God in the garden? Conscience. They knew he said, “Don’t eat this forbidden fruit.” They did it, and they ran and they hid. Why? Because conscience let them know that they had displeased the lord.
What made King David cry out, saying, “Have mercy upon me, oh, God. Do not take your holy spirit from me”? Conscience did that.
What made Pilate’s wife, when Jesus appeared before her husband, go to her husband and say, “Have nothing to do with this just man“? Conscience did that.
What made Judas scream, “I have betrayed innocent blood“? Conscience did that.
What made Peter weep after he denied Jesus Christ three times — Peter, who just a few hours before told Jesus, “I will die for you”? And then when push came to shove, he denied him before an 18-year-old girl. He rolled up and produced his credentials as a spiritual coward. Conscience tormented him until he was forgiven by the lord.
With some people, a clear conscience is nothing but a poor memory.
Thank God for your conscience. Before radar, before sonar, before there was a compass that read N, God placed a conscience in your soul. Ignore it and you will destroy yourself. Ignore it and you will destroy your marriage. You will destroy your children. We will destroy our nation. Let me tell you something: America needs to rediscover our conscience.
The development of your conscience is learned. Listen to David: I will instruct you and teach you. Hear that? I will instruct you and teach you in the way. I will guide you with my eye [upon you].
You Don’t Hear from God Because You Don’t Allow Him to Teach You
In times past, I have asked the lord, “Why do your children so often miss the will of God? Why do they suffer so needlessly? … Why can’t they reach their divine perfection and destiny?” And the lord gave me this answer: “They do not allow me to teach them how to follow me, how to listen to me, how to instinctively obey my word.”
You Don’t Hear from God Because You Aren’t Following the Lord
Knowing the lord and following the lord are two different things. Did you hear what I just said? Knowing the lord and following the lord are two different things. God can forgive your sins, but he has to teach you how to follow him. God knows what you’re looking for. He knows how to guide you to your destiny. He knows where your new husband is. That’s for those of you who are looking for one, by the way. I hope the one sitting beside you is good enough. He knows where finances can be found for your new business venture. He knows where the answer [is] for your physical health. He knows how to help you find peace of mind. He knows how to take you by streams of living water in the desert of your days. He will guide you with his eye. You will hear a word behind you saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” When you get in paths of righteousness, everything just starts going right. It doesn’t matter what’s going on around you. You have absolute peace.
You Don’t Hear from God Because You Think You’re Smarter Than He Is
Our intellect, our stubborn flesh always wants to do its thing, but when you hear the word of God and the spirit of God within you saying, “Stop!” — stop! Instantly stop until you know exactly where you’re going. …
[People] say, “Well, I’m talented, I’m smart, I’ve been in the church for years. I have money and powerful friends.” It’s hard for you to hear from God because you think you know everything. Let me tell you: none of us in this room know anything. God can put you in the hospital in 30 minutes in a full-body cast. And then as you’re staring at the ceiling, you’ll say, “I think maybe God’s trying to speak to me now.” …
You Don’t Hear from God Because You Don’t Try to Hear Him
Isaiah 30:15 — write that down. In quietness shall be your strength. … I have a special chair out on my back porch. When I really get in a spiritual battle, I go out there, turn off the phone, lock the doors, and just wait until I hear from the lord. I don’t talk to anybody. I don’t want to talk to anybody. I want to hear from the lord. And when I hear — I mean there’s a divine click that happens in my spirit, and I see what I’ve never seen because in the supernatural you can solve a problem much more readily than you can with your own intellect. There have been days I sat down and said, “God, I.don’t.know.what to do.” And I would sit there for the better part of an hour and then, bang, instantly I saw the answer, got up, executed it, and it produced a harvest that has made this ministry grow from Day One. Not because of the preacher but because we are following a divine shepherd who knows the way. Follow him! …
You Don’t Hear from God Because You’re Stubborn
David writes, “Be not as the horse or the mule … whose mouth must be held with a bit and bridle.” You see, I have one right here. … [My son] Matthew is a master horseman. [T]his is something that they put in the mouths of a horse that weighs 1,500 pounds, 2,000 pounds and may feel frisky and independent of the will of its rider. So they just put this metal bar [inside the horse’s mouth], and all they have to do to make 2,000 pounds of power and flesh stop is [yank]. And suddenly they stop because they’ve got steel on both sides and metal inside. … And that’s why those horses ride with their head up, because they’re trying to get this thing out of the edge of their mouth.
You say, “Oh, God doesn’t do that.” He does. He’s got it right here in the Bible. “Be not as the horse or the mule that has to have one of these things because it’s not doing the will of the owner.” God is saying to his church, “If you would just follow me. It’s so painless. But in case you think your physical man is going to override me, I’m going to give you one of these tailor-made little horse bridles here.” …
When God tries to reach you through your conscience and your stubborn flesh refuses to hear his voice, God gets that out. The problem is God has a lot of children who are mule-headed and going through life singing Frank Sinatra’s song “I Did It My Way.” … Now, this is called stubbornness. Stubbornness destroys marriages. Stubbornness destroys friendships. Stubbornness destroys opportunities to prosper. Stubbornness is mule-headedness.
Well, what’s wrong about that? Well, 1 Samuel 15:23 says, “Stubbornness is as idolatry.” … Why? Who is a stubborn person? A stubborn person is someone who will not change his mind in the presence of truth. Why? Because that person worships his opinion more than he believes the truth of God’s word. He believes his thoughts transcend the thoughts of God. He thinks his will is greater than the will of God. He believes his little Ph.D. is greater than the creator of heaven and Earth. [So] God just reaches over and [yanks the bridle].
If you would walk in the way, what a beautiful thing it would be. But if you don’t, God’s not in heaven saying, “Oh my goodness, I don’t know what I’ll do.” He just [yanks that bridle] one more time.
You Don’t Hear from God Because You’re Sinning
Sin will short circuit your prayers. Psalm 66:18: If I regard iniquity in my heart, the lord will not hear me. What is sin? The Bible says, “To him that knows to do right and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
Watching Pornography.
Americans have been mastered by television. I listened to an Orthodox Jewish father just this week. He has five children in his home. He said, “I don’t have television in my home.” He said, “The pornography on television is just off the charts, and it’s not going to defile my children.” … Think about that. Conscience screams, “Turn it off,” and the flesh says, “Turn it back on.”
“Turn it off!”
“Turn it back on.”
“Turn it off!”
And if you just keep on doing it, the conscience gets less and the voice gets less and less and less and less and finally you don’t hear it anymore because your conscience is seared and you’ve lost contact with God. You’re on your own. And some of you are there. Some of you are there. …
Caving in to Feelings.
A couple [was] just married. They walked down the aisle of the church, and the young man looked at his bride and said, “I don’t feel married.” She said, “You’d better adjust your feelings, mister. You are married.”
You don’t feel saved. There’s not a verse in the Bible that says, “When you feel saved, you are saved.” … Romans 10:13 says if you received Jesus as your lord and savior, he is the lord of your life. It has no bearing on how you feel.
Gossiping.
The Bible says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” If you’re not an eyewitness, you are a false witness. That’s the Bible principle. If you are not an eyewitness, you didn’t see it, and you shouldn’t be talking about it.
Overindulging.
You’ve just eaten a massive supper, and you’re eating your fourth bowl of ice cream, and your conscience says, “Put it down,” and your flesh says, “Just one more bite.”
“Put it down.”
“One more bite.”
“Put it down.”
“One more bite.”
There’s really no difference between a foodaholic and an alcoholic. You just have different addictions.
You Don’t Hear from God Because You Don’t Pray Properly
Christians can pray a lie. That’s the best way to say that. … It goes like this, “Oh, lord, I thank you that I have the victory.” The truth is that your marriage is as dead as Julius Caesar, the bill collectors are standing on your porch three deep, your son’s in jail, your daughter just ran off with the village idiot, [and] your car was repossessed and you were in it. The answer is [praying], “Oh, God, not much is going right in my life. I need your leadership.”
When all that stubbornness gets out of you, you’re going to be glad to hear [God’s] voice. You’re going to be glad to obey [him].
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